Customer loyalty and member services top the list of what determines a health plan's long-term viability, according to the Sachs Group, which recently named 11 health plans to its 1998 Sachs Honor Roll list. The Evanston, Ill.-based marketing research firm surveyed 97,000 consumers in 30 major markets to gauge their attitudes in these two critical areas of customer satisfaction.
With managed care acquisition approaching $1,000 per enrollee, a health plan's success is contingent on retaining members in order to grow market share, says Bob Mayo, Sachs' senior VP.
From an external PR standpoint, the real value of this kind of recognition is in the health plan's ability to consistently garner these "quality" acknowledgements, according to the winning plans interviewed by HPRMN.
"Sachs isn't a household name [for consumers], but it's nice for them to see that our health plan continues to get industry recognition," says Patti Embry-Tautenhan, manager of media relations at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) in Boston.
In addition to being one of the Sachs Honor Roll recipients, HPHC, this year, received its second three-year accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), high satisfaction rankings from New York-based CareData Reports and J.D. Power & Associates, a marketing information firm based in Agoura Hill, Calif.
Quality Brand Positioning
Although these stamps of approval aren't expected to make big news splashes, they can bolster a health plan's brand-positioning efforts in the market. Some of the Sachs winning health plans launched special advertising campaigns that promoted their high level of performance.
For instance, ChoiceCare Health Plans in Cincinnati, Ohio, made the Sachs Honor Roll listing three consecutive years and made the recognition an integral part of its marketing programs targeting ChoiceCare managers, employers and members. Last year, the health plan launched an advertising campaign promoting its citations for high-ranking customer satisfaction.
This year, the honor roll listing put the regional plan in the same league as big, nationally known plans like Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross & Blue Shield and Cigna, says Larry Savage, ChoiceCare's executive director. And with 60 percent to 70 percent of its employer-clients having offices nationwide, the Honor Roll classification is bigger news than offering open-access products.
In addition to launching a consumer advertising campaign promoting its high rankings from Sachs, the National Research Corp. and NCQA, ChoiceCare developed employer-focused collateral for brokers that highlight its high-value, low-cost market positioning.
And, Cigna HealthCare of Florida, based in Tampa, impaneled a team of member services, sales, provider relations, marketing and PR to communicate its Honor Roll status to key audiences.
"We want to make this award as easy as possible for the average member to understand," says William Antonello, Cigna's VP of marketing.
To that end, Cigna has hired New York's DDB Needham advertising agency to launch a print campaign in the next few weeks that will focus on Cigna's distinction as the only plan in the market to be recognized for customer loyalty and satisfaction. (The budget has not yet been determined.)
Growth Opportunities
As the managed care marketplace becomes more sophisticated, expect the drivers of health plan satisfaction to evolve, says Michele Lueck, a Sachs director. This year, it was important for health plans to demonstrate high retention rates and strong member services because employers do not want to deal with the administrative repercussions of employees switching health plans.
The next step is customization. Beyond showing customer loyalty, health plans will need to create high levels of satisfaction among specific customer groups like fee-for-service and primary care members.
More than likely, next year's honor roll criteria will evaluate this kind of customization, says Lueck. (ChoiceCare, Larry Savage, Valerie Kennedy, 502/580-1847; Cigna, David Fang, William Antonello, 954/958-6031; HPHC, William Schlag, Patti Embry-Tautenhan, 617/731-7413)
1998 Sachs Honor Roll Winning Plans
This year, the Sachs Group looked at four key indicators of customer loyalty for its Honor Roll designation of 11 health plans (listed below), including recommendation of the plan to a friend, intention to renew coverage, satisfaction with insurance coverage and overall satisfaction.
| Health Plan | Markets |
| Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida | Miami |
| ChoiceCare Health Plans | Cincinnati |
| Cigna Healthcare of Florida | Tampa |
| Harvard Pilgrim Health Care | Boston |
| Kaiser Permanente, California | Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco |
| Kaiser Permanente, Colorado | Denver |
| Kaiser Permanente, Mid-Atlantic Region | Washington, D.C. |
| Kaiser Permanente, Northwest Region | Portland |
| Physicians Health Services | New York |
| Prudential HealthCare, South Florida | Miami |
| Prudential HealthCare, Mid-Atlantic | Washington, D.C. |
| Source: Sachs Group | |
Spreading High-Quality News
In this climate of managed care quality bashing, getting industry kudos for high levels of customer satisfaction goes a long way toward boosting employee morale and brand positioning.
Whether your health plan has received recognition from a marketing information firm like the Sachs Group or an accreditation-granting organization like the National Committee for Quality Assurance, it's important to pull together key departments such as member services, marketing, PR and management to communicate the good news.
Develop targeted communications efforts that involve:
- Collateral materials for employer-based RFPs (request for proposals) that identify why the health plan was awarded the recognition, i.e. clinical improvements, exceptional member services, customer satisfaction;
- Internal newsletter campaigns that educate employees about the recognition;
- Consumer advertising efforts that focus on radio and print strategies. These mediums typically are most effective for quality-oriented messages;
- PR campaigns that educate the media on the specific reasons the health plan received its recognition. Simply focusing on high-quality is too vague and will likely be overlooked by editors; and
- Leverage the health plan's consistency of recognition in all communications to demonstrate a quality-based track record.
Source: HPRMN